It happens to every shop owner sooner or later. You ordered heavy for a season that came in slow, a vendor had a deal too good to pass up, or a product just didn’t catch on. Now there are boxes in the back room, and that money is sitting on a shelf instead of in the bank.
A lot of local store owners figure selling online is for big companies, or that it means fighting with Amazon. It doesn’t have to. Here’s a simple, realistic way a small shop can sell extra stock online, with the real fees for each option.
Start with a count, not a website
Before you pick a place to sell, know what you’ve got. Walk the back room with a notepad or a spreadsheet and write down:
- What the item is (name, size, color)
- How many you have
- What you paid for each one
- What you’d be happy to get for it
That last column matters most. Clearance isn’t about making your normal margin. It’s about turning boxes back into cash you can use for things that sell. Decide your floor price now, before you get attached.
Photograph it on your phone
You don’t need a photographer. Your phone is plenty. A few tips:
- Shoot near a window in daylight. Turn off the overhead lights if they make things look yellow.
- Use a plain background. A white wall, a sheet of poster board, or a clean table works.
- Take one straight-on photo, one from an angle, and one close-up of any label, size tag, or detail.
- For a batch of the same item, photograph one and use it for all of them.
Good photos sell more than good descriptions. Keep the words short: what it is, the size, the condition, and the price.
Price it for clearance
People shopping clearance want to see a deal. A few simple ways to show it:
- Show the original price next to the sale price.
- Bundle slow items together: “any 3 for $20.”
- Set a date: “clearance ends when the shelf is empty” or “through the end of the month.”
- Lower prices in steps if something isn’t moving after a couple of weeks.
Offer local pickup
For a local shop, pickup is your biggest advantage. There’s no shipping to figure out, no boxes to pack, and the buyer comes into your store, where they might see something else they like. Most of the options below let you offer pickup.
Your real options, and what they cost
Here’s what each one charges, straight from their own pages as of the date at the bottom of this post.
Square Online (free plan)
If you already take cards with Square, this is the easiest start. Square Online has a free plan. There’s no monthly fee on it, and Square takes 3.3% plus 30 cents on each online sale. Square’s paid plans lower that to 2.9% plus 30 cents.
It lets customers order online and pick up in store or at the curb, and the money goes into your own Square account. On the free plan, the store lives at a Square web address (yourshop.square.site) instead of your own .com, but you can link to it from your website.
Shopify
Shopify is built for online stores and is very capable. The Basic plan is $29 a month billed yearly, or $39 month to month. Card rates on Basic start at 2.9% plus 30 cents. It’s a good fit if you plan to sell online for the long haul, but it’s more than most shops need to clear one back room.
Facebook Marketplace
Marketplace is where a lot of your neighbors already shop for deals. For local pickup, you list the item, the buyer messages you, and you settle up in person. If you ship through Facebook’s checkout, Facebook charges a selling fee on each order. Check their help pages for the current rate before you ship.
The catch is time. Every buyer messages you, and you answer each one. It works well for a handful of bigger items and gets tiring for a hundred small ones.
eBay
eBay reaches buyers all over the country, which helps with odd or collectible items. You get up to 250 listings a month with no listing fee. When something sells, eBay takes 13.6% of the sale for most categories (on the first $7,500), plus 30 cents for orders $10 or under, or 40 cents for orders over $10. You’ll also be packing and shipping.
Which one should you pick?
Here’s how I’d think about it:
- A few big items: Facebook Marketplace with local pickup.
- Odd, collectible, or hard-to-find items: eBay, because it reaches more buyers.
- A lot of everyday stock, and you want local customers to shop it: an online store with pickup, like Square Online.
- You plan to sell online for years: Shopify is worth a look.
You can also mix them. Put the bulk of it in an online store and post a few eye-catching items on Marketplace with a link back to your store.
The hard part is the setup, and I can do that for you
Most shop owners I talk to don’t struggle with the idea. They struggle with finding the time to enter fifty products, write descriptions, size photos, and get the store looking right. That’s the part I handle.
- $999 for a website with a store: I build your website, set up your store and enter up to 50 products for you. If I already built your website, adding the store is $500. More products are $10 each.
- $20 a month to keep it current (optional): new items, sold-out items and sale prices, done for you.
The store runs on Square Online’s free plan, in your own Square account. Square takes its per-sale fee (3.3% plus 30 cents on the free plan), and the sales money goes straight to you, not through me. You send me the photos and your count sheet, and I do the rest.
If you’d also like a regular website for the shop, take a look at my affordable small business websites. The store and the website can link to each other so customers find both.
Want to talk it over? Read more about websites and online stores for small shops, or send me a note with a rough idea of what’s in your back room. I’ll tell you honestly whether it’s worth putting online.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a website to sell extra stock online?
No. You can sell on Facebook Marketplace or eBay without one. An online store with local pickup, like Square Online, works well for local shops because the money and the customers come straight to you.
What does Square Online cost?
Square Online has a free plan with no monthly fee. Square takes 3.3% plus 30 cents on each online sale on that plan. Paid Square plans lower the rate to 2.9% plus 30 cents.
Can customers pick up in my store instead of paying for shipping?
Yes. Square Online lets you offer in-store and curbside pickup, including on the free plan.
How many products can you set up for me?
The store setup includes up to 50 products. After that it’s $10 a product, so 200 products would add $1,500.
Sources
Prices below were checked on 2026-09-30. Companies change their prices, so check the source before you buy.
- Square, Learn about Square fees: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5068-what-are-square-s-fees
- Square, Set up pickup options for your online store: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6866-in-store-and-curbside-pickup-with-square-online-store
- Square, Use a custom subdomain with your online store: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6966-use-a-custom-subdomain-with-your-online-store
- Shopify pricing: https://www.shopify.com/pricing
- eBay, selling fees: https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822